Judgement

How sleep deprived was I yesterday? Last night I slept about 11 hours. I was up a few times and even made my way out of bed, but fell right back asleep when I hit my easy chair. I’m still fatigued, and that’s with two cups of coffee. Sleeping in the chair I managed to hurt my neck and elbow. I get the neck but elbow? It’s the arthritic elbow but this feels more like a bone bruise. It’s right on the point of the joint. I’m not concerned, that kind of thing always goes away. I did skip physical therapy as it would interfere.

I was watching Daredevil and have a new movie trope to complain about. Someone is seriously hurt, lost lots of blood, then all of a sudden gets up and beats the crap out of someone, then collapses. If you are bleeding out you can’t will yourself to do anything anymore than you can will your car to drive when it’s out of gas. It always bothers me. Think of the Mountain in GoT crushing the guys skull moments before going comatose. The reason his attacker felt safe putting his head right next to him as that people bleeding to death are not a threat. This happens in just about every action film or TV show and should stop now that I pointed it out. Somebody please see to it. Get it fixed before Avengers 4.

Now to write something I dread writing. I’m going to preach, I know I preach often, but I hate preaching. I’m adverse to telling people that they are wrong on anything that’s not factual. I’m also adverse to people being wrong; it is a puzzlement. Every once in a while the balance changes and I preach. Today is one of those days.

There’s an infamous piece by George Will, Will: Why Liberals Love Trains. Read it or you might think I’m setting up a straw man. In it Will says; “the real reason for progressives’ passion for trains is their goal of diminishing Americans’ individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism.” I’m a progressive, I love trains, neither of which is about social engineering. I like trains because they are good for the environment and there will always be a part of me that loves the choo-choo. I don’t know anyone that sees it as a vehicle for destroying individualism. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist. The country is so big that I’m sure that is true of some people, but it’s not the engine pulling the pro-rail train.

This is the archetype of one of the worse forms of argument, asserting what the real motivations are for your ideological opponents. So far my progressive allies are going, “Hell yeah! Those conservatives do that all the time. They think that gay marriage is a plot to destroy the institution of marriage, and abortion is about destroying families, or limiting the population of blacks, and will lead to killing newborns.” Those are all calumnies that I’ve heard and you’re still with me.

Now I’m going to lose people, progressives do the same thing. Not as much, it’s not as powerful a force, but they do it. I’ve read many defenses of Kavanaugh, every one I’ve heard directly from the defender, has been along the lines of “He didn’t do it.” That’s not what you’d think if you read an element of the left. I repeatedly see them trumpeting the argument, “What he did in high school doesn’t matter,” and “Boys will be boys.” While there are people saying that, it’s not the main thrust. It’s not pulling the train. It is a lot easier to assign unsavory motives to our opponents than to confront nuanced issues. People supporting Kavanaugh are not all automatically accepting sexual assault as a normal part of growing up. If we are going to be intellectually honest we have to admit the possibility that he’s innocent. All accusations are not true, just ask anyone that has heard the story of Emmett Till. If you don’t know this off the top of your head, read up on it now.

You’re already getting mad at me. I can hear it, at least my anxiety can. “How dare you compare Kavanaugh to Till?” I’m not. Nobody is going to lynch Kavanaugh. He is not a poor, powerless, black boy. The point is that all accusations are not founded in truth. You have to admit at least the possibility. I believe Dr. Blasey; I think that Kavanaugh assaulted her. There’s enough doubt about it that he shouldn’t be convicted in court and sent to prison. There’s also enough doubt about it that he shouldn’t be given a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

That Is not the same as saying that everyone that feels otherwise is doing so in bad faith. That’s the part I object to. Supporting Kavanaugh is not the same as defending or minimizing sexual assault.

On a closely related note, being right to life, does not mean you are against the rights of women. People equate being pro-life with misogyny. Then how do you explain how similar the divide of men and women are on abortion (No gender gap in views on whether abortion should be legal. Every person that says, “If men could get pregnant the right to abortion would be in the constitution;” are just wrong. That doesn’t make me any less pro-choice. I just won’t demonize those that disagree with me. There are people that think that a fetus is a person. They even think that a zygote is a person. I think that’s ridiculous. I think people can believe many ridiculous things without being evil. They are simply wrong.

I’m not saying to fight any less hard for what you believe in. I’m just suggesting that you do so without making ad hominin attacks on those that disagree; that you don’t assign them all with the worst motive any of them have. A progressive doesn’t judge a person solely by their worst moment or worst feature. We see humans as human, not as angels or demons.

I have to get out of the house more, that keeps a check on me moralizing. I’d much rather write about music or the Mets. I’d like to write about the light that shines through people, the light that some people create within them. But you can’t see the light without contrast with the dark so sometimes I have to point my gaze at the shadows.